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Secondhand Smoke

Learn more about the harmful effects of smoking, smokeless tobacco, and secondhand smoke from the resources on this Web site. You can also find out about resources and Web links that address health effects, prevention and cessation services.

Live Smoke Free is ANSR's smoke-free apartments and multi-housing program that assists landlords in adopting smoke-free policies for their entire building, including individual units. Live Smoke Free also assists tenants in finding solutions to secondhand smoke exposure in their rental units. Live Smoke Free is funded on a grant from the Minnesota Department of Health with a focus area on the Twin Cities metro area. Live Smoke Free's website contains sections for apartment landlords/managers, tenants, and community organizations (such as public health, attorneys, social justice groups, etc.). It also features the Smoke-Free Housing Directory.

Clinicians.org/ Tobacco Free
While many organizations are devoted to tobacco cessation, TobaccoFree is unique in its focus on underserved populations. Improving quality of care among this population could achieve measurable results in health outcomes. Toward that end, standards for use of electronic health records now require that tobacco use be documented in the patient record.

Content areas on TobaccoFree:

Tobacco and Underserved Populations - information on tobacco use in special population groups including racial and ethnic minorities, LGBT, HIV+, low socio-economic status, mental health consumers, and pregnant women. Also links to organizations specializing in tobacco issues for these special population groups.

Standards of Care - evidence-based practices that clinicians can utilize to motivate and empower patients to stop tobacco use. Included are the 5As (ask, advise, assist, assess, and arrange), the 5 Rs (relevance, risk, reward, roadblocks, and repetition), motivational interviewing, screening, medication guidance, and a section on cultural competency.

Tools - resources and checklists to improve clinical performance, including an office systems checklist, patient assistance program, a link to an interactive Quitline national map and a printer-friendly Quitline referral form, chart audit tools and other quality improvement tools.

Research - you will find information on tobacco use by income, geography, race, age, and education level; quitting efforts and success-rates; and more.

Policy and Advocacy - resources you need to create and implement systems-wide policies regarding tobacco use and links to national advocacy organizations working for a tobacco free world.

United States Department of Health & Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General
Secondhand Smoke – Health Effects

The Office of the Surgeon General has several publications on secondhand smoke including The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke, a June 2006 scientific report which concludes that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. This report finds that even brief secondhand smoke exposure can cause immediate harm. The report says the only way to protect nonsmokers from the dangerous chemicals in secondhand smoke is to eliminate smoking indoors. Secondhand smoke exposure can cause heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults and is a known cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), respiratory problems, ear infections, and asthma attacks in infants and children, the report finds. Nearly half of all nonsmoking Americans are still regularly exposed to secondhand smoke.

Executive Summary – The executive summary version of the report is a technical publication that includes excerpts from the complete report.(2.14MB/36 pages)